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The Party of Gimme

By David Firestone October 14, 2013 10:26 amOctober 14, 2013 10:26 am

J. Scott Applewhite/Associated PressJohn Boehner on Oct. 10, 2013.

Members of Congress negotiated frantically over the weekend to reopen the government and stave off a default that is now only four days away. Every proposal fell apart, however, and the reason is pretty simple: at every step, Republicans insisted on winning something in exchange for performing those two necessary acts.

Democrats refused to let that happen, informing Republicans that if they wanted to negotiate, it would require both sides to give up something substantial. Preventing default doesn’t count.

It’s amazing that after weeks of listening to President Obama make clear this principle, Republicans still don’t get how important it is. In the days before the shutdown, Democrats rejected every demand the House made to damage health care reform in exchange for keeping open the government. Eventually, the House dropped its health-law demands, but remained locked into the notion that they had to get something out of this crisis, to “put points on the board,” in Speaker John Boehner’s extremely unfortunate phrase.
The House seemed to think that if it raised the debt ceiling for a few weeks but kept the government closed, the Obama administration might be desperate enough to agree to its demand to negotiate over long-term budget issues. The White House said open the government first, and Mr. Boehner, in his usual fashion, walked out.

A look at the widespread effects of the federal shutdown by members of the editorial board.

The burden then shifted to Senate Republicans, who lined up behind a proposal by Senator Susan Collins of Maine that would raise the debt ceiling and keep the government open through January, using a temporary spending resolution. But the plan would delay the medical device tax, an important part of the president’s health care law, and would effectively postpone the individual mandate for insurance for a year. It would also extend the sequester cuts far longer than Democrats would like.

Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, and others in the caucus bridled at the idea. Why should we give anything up, they asked, just to reopen government and prevent default? Those were never reasonable negotiating demands in the first place, they said, and if important policy positions were traded for them, it would only encourage blackmail tactics in the future. Besides, Democrats had already compromised by settling for the low sequester spending levels in the first place, when most members wanted to push for higher amounts.

Senate Democrats wanted a real bargaining session on spending levels, but not until Republicans gave up the leverage of the crisis.

With public opinion solidly against them, Republicans are never going to get anywhere by demanding concessions in exchange for not ruining the economy. Only when they give up their hopeless crusade can they win a conversation to talk about spending for the next year and the next decade.